THE OPTIMIST’S GUIDE TO SEASON 2012. PART TWO. By Alex Wadelton WHY BRISBANE WILL WIN THE PREMIERSHIP This year marks the eleventh anniversary of the Lions breakthrough 2001 premiership. And the tenth anniversary of their 2002 flag. And it’s also been a historic nine years since Brisbane held up the premiership cup in 2003. If [Read more]
Captain Oh Captain
February 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment
by Andrew Weiss Over the past few months there have been announcements of captains for various teams in the AFL, Australian cricket teams and even this last weekend in the A-league. For some it was just a temporary appointment, for others hopefully a long term position. Whenever captains are announced there is often quite heated debate [Read more]
Doug Wade’s Apple
February 20, 2012 by 2 Comments
After 41.5 years, the identity of the apple-thrower who might have cost Geelong a finals berth in 1970 has been solved. Courtesy of the Geelong Advertiser. http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2012/02/20/308511_news.html
Summer Love
February 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Ah, the triangular arrangement for the opening round of the NAB Cup. It’s like the old Streets Three- In-One ice cream from the sixties. Tonight we get to take a peek at Richmond, Hawthorn and North Melbourne. The Hawks are warm favourites to win the NAB Cup and are expected to press for premiership honours [Read more]
Floret Pica NAB Cup Week 1
February 19, 2012 by 1 Comment
For those either without Foxtel or with a better offer on a warm February night, I offer a few thoughts on the Pies’ opening NAB Cup games. The Fahey family lounge was full of black and white jumpers as we settled in for the first instalment of the year, this time from the grandiosely named [Read more]
The role of the skunk in the evolutionary development of football
February 19, 2012 by 24 Comments
by Clint Rule As I get more feeble in my footballing forties I feel the need to have something lateral additives to keep up with the new bloods. Functional ideas. You know the Bob Neil Volley Hybrids. I like explorer socks – comfy, thick and warm but short so they don’t fill up with water in the [Read more]
NAB Cup: North Melbourne v Richmond v Hawthorn
February 19, 2012 by 5 Comments
Year 12. It is an interesting year. It has its ups, and it has its fair share of downs. Those moments when you just can’t handle the pressure of the work that is piling on your shoulders at an alarming rate. Thankfully I haven’t experienced that, yet. The good experiences though? Where to begin! The [Read more]
Why Adelaide will win the flag
February 18, 2012 by Leave a Comment
THE OPTIMIST’S GUIDE TO SEASON 2012. By Alex Wadelton At this time of year, if everything goes right, every fan thinks their team can win the flag. Yes, even Richmond fans. So, over the coming weeks I will discuss in a completely unbiased and alphabetical manner why every single team can win the [Read more]
The return of football
February 17, 2012 by 12 Comments
By Adam Ritchie The AFL pre-season competition is upon us and that means the return of glorious football. Personally, this couldn’t have come at a better time. My withdrawal symptoms were becoming alarming and quite frankly dangerous. The other week I went for a kick in my backyard and pretended the ladder was [Read more]
Season Eve Optimism
February 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Can you smell it in the air? No? Try again. Raise your nose up a little higher and let out a big sniff. Can you smell it now? It’s that time of the year again when the fragrance of optimism and feelings of hope are abundant. It’s in the air. It’s in our hearts. It’s [Read more]
A unique life member
February 15, 2012 by 6 Comments
by Andrew Weiss In sporting clubs around Australia on honour boards within clubrooms there are names of people who have been given life membership at that particular sporting club. For some the achievement of becoming a life member may have been because of playing so many games at a particular level or playing for [Read more]
Channel 198: Watching Footy From San Francisco
February 12, 2012 by 9 Comments
by Damien Holloway What do Al Jazeera, Taiwan Outlook, France 24 News and Dwayne Russell have in common? Channel KCSMD 198. More on that later. I moved over to the USA in December of 2005 to marry an American girl. On previous visits I had regularly watched a weekly footy wrap on one [Read more]
One Tony Lockett
February 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
If not for the indecision of the Collingwood board in 1994, I would be a one-toothed Magpie supporter today. Some eighteen years later, after what one would describe as the greatest mistake ever made by the Collingwood board – though the bloodless coup of Nathan Buckley in 2009 may rival it, only time will tell [Read more]
The Winds of Economic Change
February 10, 2012 by 11 Comments
These are turbulent times in the global economy. Depending on who you listen to, we are still in the midst of the GFC; or, the GFC ended but we are now on the cusp of GFC Mark II; China’s growth is either teetering or marching on; and the European sovereign debt crisis is threatening [Read more]
Hope is where the heart is
February 10, 2012 by 34 Comments
What’s happening to Blues supporters? On my recent holiday in Yarrawonga I was surrounded by them. They were so numerous that if I was off target with a mossie swat or a fly swipe I was in danger of hitting one. Indeed this is the case every year as the same families make the trek [Read more]
A Change From the North
February 9, 2012 by 7 Comments
They come like small soldiers over the horizon, one by one, indiscernible at first. Signs. An article about the benefits of off season altitude training, Arizona or the Himalayas. It doesn’t amount to anything. Sometime later, the next time you turn to look ahead, there are more of them. They are armed. The plea from [Read more]
The Kernahans
February 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The late Harry Kernahan with young Stephen in 1984.
Optimism and hope are wonderful things
February 5, 2012 by 5 Comments
Optimism and hope are wonderful things As the new football season approaches and practice matches (that’s really what the NAB comp is) are about to begin every football supporter is optimistic about how their team is going to go in the coming year. Hopes of their team making the finals or even taking out the [Read more]
Footy Tipping, Supercoach and its impact on traditional support.
February 3, 2012 by 10 Comments
As the cricket season dies a slow death in another meaningless One Day competition, like all Almanackers, I await the football with great anticipation. The discussion on this site in recent days about the winter game, coupled with membership drives, calls for Foxtel subscriptions, players talking up pre seasons (where everyone is ‘flying’ on the [Read more]
The Commentary Box
As we hit mid-February, clearly our attentions now turn to the winter game. As Perth hits 37 degrees, 774 breaks into broadcasts with bushfire reports, and a meaningless triangular cricket tournament with one completely disenchanted and apathetic team continues, the papers are full of AFL pre-season conjecture. Also about this time of the year, the [Read more]